WASHINGTON — The table-top role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Over the last half-century, the game has drawn in a new and more diverse fanbase.
In 1974, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson released the very first edition of the game. In the decades since, D&D has grown from a niche hobby to a worldwide phenomenon.
It's prominently featured in popular media, like "Big Bang Theory" and Netflix's "Stranger Things," it has spawned numerous real-play podcasts like Dimension 20 and the ever-popular Critical Role, and even had its own major motion picture.
All of this representation has led to a surge in new players, many of whom are far removed from the "nerdy shut-in" stereotype that used to be associated with the game.
With the release of the 5th edition of the game in 2014, the focus of the gameplay shifted more toward story and character development, making the game easier for new players to get into.
Amber Logsdon is a professional Game Master, or GM. She said she got really into playing table-top games during the pandemic. She said the influx of new players have resulted in a game, and a community, that's much more open and inclusive than it used to be.
"I feel like there are so many more opportunities for that storytelling element that allows people who felt put off, or gatekept from the community — they now have that key to open the gate," she said.
The inclusion of more diverse races and character options in the fifth edition of the game has also nurtured inclusivity, giving validation to players who already felt excluded within an already fringe community.
"I'm now seeing a lot more women leading tables, I'm seeing players of color leading the charge and creating amazing expansive worlds," Logsdon said. “It’s just really inspiring to see the world of D&D become as diverse and as colorful and rich and full of texture as we are in the real world.”
Those new perspectives also lend themselves to another of the game's unexpected benefits as a form of communal therapy. Social skills, relationships, even overcoming trauma — D&D challenges players to improve not only aspects of their in-game characters but of themselves as well.
Karl Knarr is another professional GM who has been playing the game from the start. He has seen the mental health benefits first hand.
“I had a friend who was dealing with the sudden loss of the matriarch in their family, and so they turned their grief into a really dark and psychological game where the house that the matriarch lived in was literally caving in and rotting from the inside. You could see the anguish and the pain that the GM was going through and we as the players were helping the GM, in essence, work through that grief.”
One of the most well-known benefits of this more inclusive version of the game, and its more diverse fanbase, is the ability for players to discover who they are as people.
"I feel like in recent years, as people have begun to feel more comfortable questioning things within themselves more and more, they're also looking for different ways to be able to explore those questions within themselves without fear of judgment," Logsdon said.
Knarr has seen transformations for himself.
"I have had players where they would tell me 'I might be a little quiet because I'm normally I'm kind of an introvert,' and then they come out and they blossom," he said. "They're a great role-player because being able to put that mask on allows them to express themselves."
"I know plenty of people who were using their character as a way to explore what it felt like to be anything other than themselves," Logsdon said. "D&D allows for people to feel like they have that escape."
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